Thursday, May 17, 2007

Romney's Top Ten Gaffes

Time Magazine has a laugh-out-loud-funny slide show of Mitt Romney's Top Ten gaffes during the Presidential campaign...so far.

Most under-reported one: praising Nazi efforts to liquify coal into oil. (As the New York Sun's Ryan Sager said at the time, you wouldn't think that anyone running for president would have to be told: "Don't mention Hitler in a positive light.")

While some may believe the miscues humanize Romney, it is worth noting that his own father's Presidential aspirations collapsed over a single word: "brainwashing."

Moreover, the types of miscues -- seemingly out of touch with everyday Americans, such as on the gun issue -- seem to be more reminescent of John Kerry, rather than George W. Bush. As Noam Scheiber wrote in this week's TNR:

But suppose most working-class voters want something different...Suppose that, in their heart of hearts, these voters don't aspire to be slightly better off than they are today; they aspire to be rich. And one of the ways they evaluate candidates, who are frequently rich themselves, is by wondering:Is this the kind of rich person I'd like to be?

Now ask yourself: If you were a working-class voter in Middle America, what kind of rich person would you want to be? Would you want to be the kind of rich person who eats at pricy French restaurants, plays classical guitar, and vacations among the cognoscenti in Sun Valley, Idaho? Or would you want to be the kind of rich person who snacks on peanut butter and jelly, reads Sports Illustrated, and kicks back at a ranch in the middle of nowhere?